Man charged with animal cruelty after beating cat

A city man, armed with an aluminum baseball bat, severely beat a cat after it scratched his ex-girlfriend's 18-month-old granddaughter under the eye, police and family members said.

Curt BrownThe Standard-Times

NEW BEDFORD — A city man, armed with an aluminum baseball bat, severely beat a cat after it scratched his ex-girlfriend’s 18-month-old granddaughter under the eye, police and family members said.

Manuel Erinna, 55, of 50 Nye St. is being held at the Bristol County House of Correction, Dartmouth, on $1,500 cash bail, according to Bernard F. Sullivan, a spokesman for Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson and court records.

Erinna was arraigned on a charge of animal cruelty Monday in New Bedford District Court. He is scheduled to return to district court on July 15 for a pre-trial hearing.

Manny Maciel, the city’s director of animal control, said one of the cat’s eyes was removed during surgery on Tuesday because there was such extensive damage.

The cat, though, is expected to survive, he said. “Hopefully with surgery, she will do really well and we’ll get her a new home,” he said.

The ex-girlfriend, who does not want to be identified, said she was holding her granddaughter in her apartment and talking to Erinna on the phone about 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

Her granddaughter pulled the hair on the cat’s back and the feline scratched the child under the eye, causing her to cry, she said.

Erinna heard the child crying over the phone and when he learned what happened said, “I’m going to take care of that cat,” according to court documents.

A short time later, he arrived at the woman’s apartment, carrying an aluminum baseball bat and again saying “I’m going to take care of that cat,” court records show.

He shut the bedroom door, where the ex-girlfriend was with her granddaughter, and she could hear “banging” coming from the living room where Erinna and the cat were, court documents say.

When the woman emerged, she found the cat lying in the corner of the living room, bleeding from the head, according to police.

She said she signed over custody of the cat to the city’s Animal Control Department after the incident.

She and her 16-year-old daughter said in an interview Tuesday that the cat’s name is “Smudge” because the feline has a black dot on her nose. She was a house cat and she was about eight months old when they got her in 2010.

“She was like a person to us,” she said. “The cat isn’t used to children. It’s a spoiled cat. She thinks she’s human.”

She said the cat actually belonged to her daughter, who also asked not to be identified.

The woman said she and Erinna broke up a few weeks ago but were on friendly terms until he beat the cat. “I’m disappointed. He needs to get some serious help,” she said.

The cat will be going to Habitat for Cats, New Bedford, and hopefully will be adopted out “to a loving home,” according to Maciel.

Donations can be made to the “Smudge Fund” at Hidden Brook Veterinary Services, 726A Dartmouth St., Dartmouth, which performed the surgery, to help with the costs.

Animal cruelty is a felony under Massachusetts law. Chapter 272, Section 77 of the state’s criminal laws says the maximum penalty is either five years in state prison or 2 1/2 years in the House of Correction or a fine of $2,500 or both.